Heart without a beat
by Tectackles
Summary: "Hey it's Ziva! Sorry I can't get to the phone right now, leave a message!" It had taken Tony DiNozzo two and a half years to stop leaving Ziva a daily voicemail. It had been a year since then and Tony DiNozzo sat, trapped in a dark, dirty room, his hand tightly gripping that of a woman's. "Will you stay with me?" "Until my heart stops beating" TIVA FIC. TORTURE.


p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a27792a6920940ac71bada2a02f36865""You are so...loved." Ziva whispered, cupping the face of the man she had worked with for eight years, the man she had instantly become fascinated with, the man who had drawn her in with his wit and charm. Tony did not often fInd himself stumped but in that moment, he had no idea what to do. The woman he had risked his life and job for, the woman he had become instantly enamoured with was bidding him goodbye, at an airport. Tony could feel her hot breath fanning his face. This was it. They were no longer co workers. All odds were off. He closed his eyes and leant in.../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b96796ec20008a96fb2ed756e10d4e20"Anthony DiNozzo jr was sat, with his head slumped on a desk when he felt a sharp pain in the back of the head. "Ziva!" he gasped, at first thinking that his partner had hit him for sitting at her desk. He frantically looked around for the woman but there was nobody to see, except his pseudo father and boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs who prefers to go by his surname. Groggily, he shook his head in an attempt to wake up a bit more before abruptly standing up out of the desk chair he had occupied all night. "Hey boss!" Tony greeted, a big grin adorning his otherwise tired face./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c95c42e3a12c0c01fe8137c49b33c1c2""That isn't your desk DiNozzo." Gibbs stated, his usual stony glare settling upon his gracefully aged face. "Did you sleep there?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="09e4deb395a1d355baf80d7073232093"Tony looked down sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head which was still stinging from the head slap which had woken him up from his slumber. "Err..." He began, unsure of what to say "I guess I did, sorry boss." Automatically he flinched, expecting some sort of physical punishment, namely a slap to the back of the head which had been 'fondly' dubbed the 'Gibbs slap' but no such punishment was dealt out which confused the senior field agent. When he lifted his gaze from the floor to his boss, he was greeted by a sympathetic look. "Tony..." Gibbs trailed off moving a calloused hand to grip the man he considered to be his son's shoulder in what he hoped was an affectionate gesture. As odd as it was, Tony embraced the gesture, taking solace in it. "Thank you." he said without waiting for Gibbs to finish what he was going to say. Tony already knew... Ziva was gone and although it had only been four days, Tony had to get over it. She left them, not the other way 'round. Tony didn't know how Gibbs did it; pretend that nothing had happened, that he was unaffected by the whole situation. Abby was being the same way, the perky forensic scientist had been upset for the first two days, but it seemed that yesterday, on the third day, she had come to an understanding and now she was angry and resentful towards the Israeli that had (in Abby's words), 'deserted' them. Tony was unsure of how his close friend Mcgee felt, he knew they had been close friends but for the most part, Tim hadn't said anything, neither had Donald 'Ducky' Mallard or Jimmy Palmer, the medical examiner and his assistant./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d622abd876a23be2533f12ef7788d2a4"Gibbs sent Tony one last sympathetic glance before turning around and moving towards his own desk. The senior field agent found himself sending one last longing glance down towards his ex-partners desk before making his way towards his own desk./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ea43e2284a2d9650389e26e37472ab29"Timothy McGee jogged into the office, three cups of coffee in his arms. "Sorry I'm late-" he half shouted, cutting himself off as he took in Tony's dishevelled appearance. He was wearing the same clothes as the day before and Tim knew something was wrong. He slowed down in front of his long time partners desk, placed a cup of coffee down on it before giving him a look, silently asking him if he was okay and that he, Tim, would do whatever he could to help. All he was given in response was a nod of gratitude for the drink. McGee was taken aback by how empty Tony's eyes were, but he made sure not to linger for too long. He then proceeded to deliver the other coffee to his boss before lowering himself down into his own chair behind his own desk./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6cf83cac1ab8598608f1ec19385a08ff"Suddenly, the silent office space was filled with the sound of a phone ringing. Instantly, all heads snapped down to check if it was theirs and then around to see who it was that had received the call. Nobody had answered. Then in dawned on the whole team, the sound was coming for the phone on Ziva's desk. Nobody knew what to do. Should they answer? Ignore it? Gibbs was about to walk over and press ignore when Tony flung himself out of the chair, strode towards the desk and picked up the phone. "Hello?" DiNozzo asked, his tone of voice changing to what he liked to think was a professional one. All eyes were on him. "Hello?" He asked again, his repeated greeting was not met with a reply but with a hitch of the breath of whoever was on the other line. Tony recognised it. That small sound... he knew. That insignificant little sound... he would recognise it anywhere. He turned his head towards McGee sharply, pointing distractedly toward the phone but Tim understood, he was to trace the call./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="10a563b3f5a39fe2d03bdf9ace480130""Please answer, I know it's you. Please just let me know you're okay!" Tony begged. No reply. "I don't know why you called," he continued "but I hope you're okay and I need you to come home, to me." He desperately whispered down the phone line. Then the phone was snatched out of his hands, much to his displeasure./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d8b4fea0db1129e9a42142f6850b02a7""David, you have some explaining to do." Gibbs growled into the phone. Neither of the two agents were sure if their boss had received a reply but either way, he once again spoke to the person they believed to be Ziva, on the other end of the phone./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="44cebf6dcd8a07efa106fe51e6564682""I don't know why you called either, but you have to sort things out." Gibbs continued. Mcgee gestured for Tony to go over to him and pointed at his monitor, they had gotten a signal./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a451e45a10e842e05439b40f54e35616"Suddenly there silence./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e6a8d5b981b512ec97b78c79f10d579a""TONY IS EXHAUSTED AND UPSET!" The father of the team suddenly shouted "HE NEEDS YOU! WE ALL NEED YOU!" he finished his short outburst breathing heavily./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b078ff015cba00feb1d0ed12666ea1fd"The map on the monitor zoomed in to the general Middle East area./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e26793d8b830fda3617e2d21a979a340""Ziva David, god help me, if you don't make this right, the next time I see you I'll kick your ass to Israel and back! Just remember we love you and-"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ac7fcd1560d8551c9fbd7c4248bb47e5"Whatever Gibbs was going to say would never be found out for the line disconnected./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="038b5d8198062181ff3c4c7099b83d65"Silence ensued./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d65a991493a68dd3ef867bd141f4359d""McGee!" Gibbs barked, "what have you got?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="52e40c2dcbc6b57195b74e6c6fa81458"The probie suddenly looked uncomfortable and answered nervously "Not much boss, a few more seconds and we could have gotten the country. It took so long because it came from a blocked cell phone. All we know is that it's from somewhere in the Middle East. Sorry."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1fec463b03ca801333f4221b71590925"Gibbs sighed heavily, slamming the phone back into the receiver "Why was the phone blocked?" he asked the special agent fondly dubbed 'probie' with an abnormally tired voice. McGee took a few seconds thinking of how to word it so his boss could understand: "Well, we can only speculate but the call could have been coming from Mossad, but that's unlikely since Ziva probably wouldn't re-join, and she wouldn't be able to block her own cell phone so that means it's coming from somewhere else government related, or from a place like in Somalia..." The probie trailed off at the thought of Somalia. The whole team had traveled there to rescue Ziva from terrorists, risking their live in the process./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3f005405d242d620d65741038fbd7fea"Gibbs took a while to reply, clearly deep in thought, "Well, let's get to work then, we don't even know if it was Ziva, even though it probably was, she would have spoken to us if she wanted to. She wanted to move on, and we will too." He concluded before moving swiftly back towards his desk and turning his computer on. Unsure of what to say or do, McGee set straight to work, continuing the report he had been writing the day before./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="01b4fe05a3ad75b6c18e34581e948b4c"Both agents remained oblivious to their friend and fellow field agent just standing rigidly, staring down at their former Israeli partner's former desk.../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="645e9d1fb6408181e111cb2b066a8588"The rest of the day went slowly for all three agents who spent their time working on cold cases and filling out paper work. No one moved for the entire day, not even Gibbs to get a refill of his coffee. The end of the day had finally approached and Timothy McGee was the first to bid them goodnight. Around half an hour later Gibbs gathered his thing and went to leave, only stopping to speak to his senior field agent "You better not sleep here." He said sternly to the man who's face remained stoic but his eyes, which had looked void of any emotion earlier, were filled with pain beyond his years. "Yes boss." The man mumbled, the reply barely reaching the older man's ears. Satisfied with the answer, Gibbs left for the night./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="11e464894010f2ddf26b9f79459755e2"Tony sat for another hour or so, staring at his blank monitor just as he had done all day, thinking about the woman he desperately wished to see again when an idea hit him. He whipped out his phone and dialled a number he knew by heart. It rung, the sound filling the otherwise quiet squad room. "Hey it's Ziva!" a cheerful voice rang out, "Sorry I can't get to the phone right now, leave a message!" The angelic (in Tony's opinion), voice stopped and was followed by a shrill beep. Tony found himself unusually nervous "Hey Ziva... It's me. I don't know why I'm calling you, but I need to. I need to hear your voice and I guess your answer phone message will have to do... We got a call today, I'm pretty sure it was you, I miss you. Call me back?" He hung up, feeling better than he had minutes before. Her voice... It always made things better./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bd9d042c996f3c8a91b94130f37847ff"It was that day, he vowed to call her everyday even if it was just to leave a voice message. He promised himself he would listen to her voice everyday and maybe, just maybe, she would be listening to his too.../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="03a93a7b1d85a4940695fb413cf77122"Somewhere far away, there was a room, with nothing in it, except a woman chained by her leg to the floor and a man, crouching down beside her with a cell phone in his hand. The woman had been made to listen to an audio clip of sorts. For four days, the woman had been tortured in almost every way imaginable and she had not cried nor had she given away any information, she had barely even flinched... Upon listening to a simple piece of audio though, she shook with suppressed sobs. The man grinned, he had a new secret weapon.../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7b758580861fd6d21ce1138c26128b1a"A lone tear ran down the woman's cheek./p 


End file.
